Before this pandemic started Tesla was riding a massive wave as electric vehicles rose to prominence. Then things got spooky when Tesla was forced to shut down their Freemont factory as the entire auto industry went down the drain. But Tesla held fast and managed to get Model Y production up to speed shortly after Freemont reopened. And they managed to make it past these obstacles unscathed, posting a profit in Q2 2020.
It seems like that was just the beginning of the story though. Tesla had a lot of momentum pushing them forward, and it seems like they may have been hurt by the lockdowns a lot more than I had expected. I say this because during Q3, lacking these obstacles, Tesla managed to absolutely shatter my expectations. They delivered over 139,000 vehicles during Q3, their all-time record. Here’s how they broke everything down:
| Production | Deliveries | Subject to operating lease accounting | |
| Model S/X | 16,992 | 15,200 | 13% |
| Model 3/Y | 128,044 | 124,100 | 7% |
| Total | 145,036 | 139,300 | 7% |
Production is up, and it seems like their contactless deliveries have been going smoothly. They’ve far surpassed their record of 112,000 deliveries in Q4 2020.
It’s hard to say exactly why Tesla is doing so well currently. Some may point to an increase in demand for EVs as people become more aware of the need for more sustainable technologies.
I’d argue that this is actually just the continued growth we expected from Tesla after the release of the Model Y. Hype for the Model Y was at an all-time high before it’s release. When Tesla posted deliveries in Q2 that were in line with past results it seemed like they were unaffected by global lockdowns.
I think that they were greatly affected by the lockdowns. I think that without any obstacles they would have posted record numbers in Q2. Now that things are going better for them, we can see just how dominant Tesla is becoming with the introduction of the Model Y.
We’ll have to wait for their Q3 financial report in a few weeks to see the full picture of the future of Tesla. But with delivery numbers like this, the future is sure to be bright. I expect the cost of TSLA is sure to swing wildly on the back of this news.
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